What to Watch: "Mad Men"

In the latest installment of "What to Watch", IMDb's TV Editor Melanie McFarland chats with "Mad Men" stars Jon Hamm, January Jones, John Slattery, and series creator Matthew Weiner about the drama's extraordinary legacy, as AMC prepares to air its final seven episodes.

After publishing a rant about 'idiots' - frantically hip, ignorant scenesters - Dan Ashcroft finds these same people embracing him as his idol and his nerves constantly tested by his biggest fan, moronic scene personality Nathan Barley.

User Reviews

Charlie Brooker has treated us with his cynical wit brilliantly through Screenwipe, Newswipe and later on You Have been Watching but here Brooker delves solo once again. This time delving into how TV ruined your life. This is where Brooker makes various analysis about more specific aspects of how TV lets the population down with various aspects. Brooker approaches fear, the life cycle, aspiration, love, progress and knowledge. If you are already familiar with Screenwipe and Newswipe, this may feel like somewhat of a retread. Such as the aspiration element was covered in an episode of Screenwipe it seems like an extension in the episode in this series.

However it has many highlights, the episode on Love while I think covered in Screenwipe as well (don't quote me on that) presented the outlook that only Mr Brooker can deliver in such a true fashion while keeping it tongue in cheek but we understand where his viewpoint comes from. Earlier in the series. the fear episode encapsulated the current trend of media in general and even though it is a comedy it presented a very realistic outlook that's difficult to disagree with. In my view Brooker saved the best till last with the Knowledge episode where he presents TV's warped view of knowledge and how it uses things like sensationalism to get its point across. While also mocking TV presenters doing pretentious shots staring out windows and walking down steps in order to look more profound. Andrew Marr being the prime example pointed out. To conclude this a series that showed Brooker at his best and while regular viewers of his other programmes may feel like you've seen it before it has its own wit. I just hope we see more of his solo work in the future.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?